Adventure Church, Tower Theatre, and the Proud Boy Cop in Fresno, CA
It’s a story of a historically inclusive, friendly, nightlife hub in Fresno, symbolic of more than just a really old building that stands very tall among the other Tower District buildings, it’s the spot where Pride Parade stops and starts and it has hosted the Reel Pride Film Festival for decades now—Tower Theatre is also an icon of LGBTQIA civil rights in Fresno, and the diversity of people in Tower spans class, race, gender, sexuality; Tower Theatre is in the one single most diverse and inclusive neighborhood in Fresno and that is what it symbolizes: equality, equity, love.
It’s also a story about right wing agitators and harassment, of weekly Sunday rallies by the LGBTQIA community, allies, and Tower District residents, of Officer Fitzgerald, the cop with Fresno PD seen participating in the harassment of LGBTQIA activists at their Sunday rallies while off duty and was revealed to be an extremist proud boy, punisher cosplayer, kids’ ‘mentor’, and founder of a militia-esque Sons of 1776 right wing group.
Leftists and BIPOC in Fresno have long known that there was one overtly fascist far right cop serving on the Fresno pd. At a livestream event held in downtown Fresno back in January 2020, a livestream was uploaded to facebook showing a low resolution livestream of a group of proud boys with at least one man in an American Guard hoodie, chatting with and embracing a Fresno police officer in full uniform (the star on the upper arm is visible at times). While it is very low res, the livestreamer follows the man hugging the far right people and then walking to the fresno squad car. He then gets inside, does a U-turn, slows down near the livestreamer as she gets closer, and turns on his siren lights before speeding off. It is obvious a member of law enforcement spent quite a lot of time on the side being friendly with the Proud Boys and American Guard before walking to, entering, and driving his squad car. https://youtu.be/y7vxG_4nPyo [livestream copyrights acquired by United Leftist Coalition from original livestreamer]
https://kmph.com/news/local/religious-leaders-gather-in-support-of-save-the-tower-theatre-movement
(audio heard in this podcast is from this gv wire episode):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2DVHrnFL4
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article249939048.html
https://abc30.com/fresno-police-proud-boys-tower-protest/10418161/